


Hold my hand

by MemeKonYA



Series: A lifetime of us [6]
Category: Young Avengers
Genre: First Dates, Fluff, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2016-05-31
Packaged: 2018-07-11 11:13:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7047265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MemeKonYA/pseuds/MemeKonYA
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maybe he shouldn’t have gone with a hairstyle test drive on his first date.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hold my hand

**Author's Note:**

> 'Hold my hand'

“They are fucking creaming us here, Altman,” comes Eli’s tinny voice from his laptop. 

Teddy feels only slightly guilty as he keeps trying to comb his hair out of his eyes. 

“Sorry, sorry, it’s, my hair won’t stop sticking up--”   
  
“Altman, stop it. Take a deep breathe. Grab your controller. Come kick some pixelated ass with me. And stop psyching yourself out.”

“Okay,” Teddy breathes, plopping on his bed and grabbing his controller again, squinting when he sees his character’s already dead. “Okay.”

 

Teddy doesn’t stop psyching himself out.  

Eli has to leave early because his grandma wanted him to go grocery shopping with her, and Teddy’s suddenly devoid of animated violence and colorful insults to distract himself with.

He’s going on a date.  _ With Billy _ .

_ He’s going on a date with Billy. _

And his hair looks like something nested on it and left to go look for nourishment or something.

He groans into his hands.

  
  


He shifts the stray curling strands that keep stubbornly sticking up away. And then the dam breaks and he’s shifting his hairstyle back and forth, biting on his lip nervously as he tries out different things in front of the bathroom mirror. He looks good with longer hair? Maybe? Maybe a little too close to Thor circa the early 2000’s? But Billy likes Thor, right?

Shorter takes some getting used to; his ears stick out a little and his rows of earrings almost look like too much.

At one point he gets a little too experimental and shifts his hair away, head bald and pale and… wow, big. 

He shifts that one away almost immediately.

  
  


“Huh,” he turns his head one way and another. He runs his hand through his new bangs, parts them a little. 

It’s nice. It’s longer than he’s worn in years, bangs brushing his cheekbones. He could get used to it, though. It looks like something he saw on Johnny Storm some time ago, on a picture, or an old recording or something. 

He ends up shrugging, thinking  _ test drive _ . He can always shift it away if it gets too in the way.

His phone starts chiming cheerfully, his alarm going off to remind him  _ hey, you have a date! With Billy! In less than an hour! Get your butt to the subway station! _

“Oh, crap.” He looks at his reflection one last time, before rushing to his bedroom.

  
  


Maybe he shouldn’t have gone with a hairstyle test drive on his first date.

Billy’s already waiting for him outside of the American Museum of Natural History (and Billy had looked so excited about Teddy proposing that, even when Teddy had felt like a total dork the second after the words left his lips, thinking  _ Teddy, you giant nerd _ , he’d gone flushed and so alive as he talked about his favorite exhibits and this one time a friend of his broke something from a display and broke down in tears thinking they were gonna send him to jail or something, and Teddy had just sat down and listened, letting his leg brush against Billy’s and trying to avoid doing something creepy like try to count Billy’s eyelashes), and when he catches sight of Teddy his face goes through a microcosmos of expressions that starts with flustered happiness and goes through bewilderment and ends in fond amusement when Teddy’s gotten near enough, a few steps away, able to tell the few freckles on the bridge of Billy’s nose and the specks of lighter brown on his eyes. And huh, wow, Billy looks a second away from bursting out in helpless laughter and Teddy has never wanted to kiss someone more in his life.

“Hi?” He greets, soft enough that Billy leans in unthinkingly.

“Hi,” Billy replies, and he reaches a hand out to put a strand of Teddy’s hair behind his ear, easy affection that’s like a blow to the gut, if that could ever be pleasant enough to make him want to sigh a little, maybe. “New look?”

“Just, huh, shaking things up a little. Trying new things. Expanding my horizons.” _ Shut up, Altman. _

“Were you going for boyband chic? You could give Nick Carter a run for his money.”

Teddy’s mouth hangs open for a few seconds, and then the only thing he can come up with to retaliate with is, “the Backstreet Boys? Really? Did you own a poster? Had it next to your Scarlet Witch one?”

He means it in a teasing way, jabs at Billy’s ribs with a finger and smiles at him, wide enough to make it light and fun. Billy  _ blushes _ , though.

“ _ No way _ .”

Billy covers his face with his hands and grunts.

“Shut up, I was like ten, okay? And mom liked their songs, said they were great to decompress.”   
  
Oh God, Teddy could just lean in and nose at Billy’s hands till they fell away and kiss him, right at the steps of the museum, with passersby on all sides. 

He settles with taking one of Billy’s hands in his and squeezing it lightly, giving Billy a soft, reassuring smile.

“Hey, your secret’s safe with me. I was really into Enya when I was a kid.”

Billy gives him an answering smile, quirked and dimpled, and then he looks at their still joined hands and makes a sound low in his throat that makes Teddy squeeze a little harder.

“So we’re holding hands,” Billy says after they’ve been staring at each other a while, and Teddy can tell he’s going for casual, but it ends up coming out a little like a question.

“I guess we are.” Teddy replies, and he intertwines their fingers, uses his free hand to brush Billy’s rebellious strands of hair away from his eyes. “So far our date’s going great, huh?”

It’s a joke, but it also isn’t. And Teddy’s heart swells when Billy nods, whispers  _ yeah, yeah it is _ .

  
  


The exhibits are great, but Teddy pays more attention to Billy than any one of them.

  
  


(He shifts his hair back to normal that night, and the following training session Billy tells him it looks better this way, more like  _ Teddy _ , and that he was always more into Justin Timberlake anyway, which makes Teddy laugh hard enough he ends up coughing.)

**Author's Note:**

> [ Come and hang out with me on tumblr!](http://memekon.tumblr.com)


End file.
